Abstract:
Women in the UK prefer the faces of men with low levels of the stress hormone cortisol, and the
relationship is moderated by the sex hormone testosterone. In a Latvian sample, however,
women’s preferences were not affected by cortisol, and the interaction with testosterone differed
from that of the UK. To further explore cross-cultural variation in preferences for facial cues to
sex- and stress-hormones, we tested the preferences of women from 13 countries for facial
composites constructed to differ in combinations of the hormones. We found significant
relationships between a measure of societal development (the United Nations human
development index 2011) and preferences for cues to testosterone in the face, and the interaction
between preferences for cues to testosterone and cortisol. We also found a significant
relationship between preferences for cues to testosterone and a societal-level measure of parasite
stress. We conclude that societal-level ecological factors influence the relative value of traits
revealed by combinations of sex- and stress-hormones.
